Geology and the Petroleum Industry

The basic question which comes in mind when reading the headline or any article's heading is what it is all about. Same question comes in mind when someone read this article who does not know about geology. This is the reason I explain everything from basics to advance (technical) level in almost all of my articles.

Geology in very simple concept is just study about earth. Different scientists define geology in different ways but the theme of all the definitions is "study about earth". In addition geology has been revolutionized by introduction of "Theory of Plate Tectonics".


According to me geology can be completely defined as "The scientific study of the origin, history and structure of the earth".

Geology has many different fields but the fields which are mentioned below are essentials of petroleum industry.

• Petroleum Geology: It is the branch of economic geology that deals with occurrence and exploitation of oil and gas fields.

• Sedimentary and Stratigrapy Geology: Sedimentary geology is the study of sediments (small particles of sand, mud, clay) and its deposition. Sedimentology has strong relation with stratigraphy geology which is study of relationship between rock layers.

• Structural Geology: It is the study about structure of earth in order to learn about tectonic history, environments and events which are responsible for changes in earth's structure.

• Paleontology OR Palaeontology: It is the study about fossils (preserved remains of plants, animals and other organisms). The word fossil is derived from Latin word fossus.

• Biostratigraphy: It is an effort to figure out how old a certain layer of rock and sediment is. It is based on study of fossils to determine the age of rock layers.         

              

• Geophysics: It is the study of physical properties of earth such as earth's size and gravity using physics.

• Geochemistry: It involves the study of chemical composition of earth. With the help of chemical composition of different rocks and soil samples geologists can identify the presence of petroleum because of the presence of minerals and elements present in different types of rock and soil.

Importance of Geologists in Petroleum Industry

Geologist's role now days in petroleum industry has widely expanded because the price of oil and gas is touching sky these days. This is due to shortage of oil and gas. Petroleum industry is struggling hard to find and hire experienced geologists and they are paying good salaries to them.

 Importance of Geology in Petroleum Industry

Above discussion of importance of petroleum geologists and various fields of geology in petroleum industry gives crystal clear vision of its importance in petroleum industry.

"In short without scientific study of earth we are not able to discover oil and gas and this is the precious gift of geology that crude oil is fulfilling our energy requirements".  

Article by Eng Fahad

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